When I was studying a subject called Science and Technology at Uni, one of the topics dealt with a term called “Whig history.” For the uninitiated, this term in pop culture means, looking back at the past, with the mindset and views that you have now, and rewriting the history to suit your view points at this point in time. Of course the meaning of Whig history is more detailed, however unpacking the full history behind it, in this blog, is for another day.

Anyway here is an example of a Whig history (especially made up by me for this blog post);“Motley Crue changed the way bands would record music videos with the release of Smokin In the Boys Room in 1985. Their fearless leader, Nikki Sixx turned the clichéd video clip into a mini movie format. The rest of the music world needed to follow suit or they would be left behind. Video clips by Twisted Sister, Van Halen, Michael Jackson would all follow the new mini movie format made popular by Nikki Sixx.”

The above is factually incorrect. In addition, the time line of events are incorrect. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” came first, in December 1983. Then in April 1984, Twisted Sister unleashed “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and not soon after “I Wanna Rock.” Also in the same year came “Hot For Teacher” from Van Halen. “Smokin In The Boys Room” didn’t come until 1985.

The above example is to illustrate a revisionist view on history, that takes the view point of a “super hero” and how that super hero changed the course of the music industry.

First, let me say that I am a fan of Motley Crue. Growing up in the Eighties, Motley Crue and the attitude they exhibited was something that I could relate too. I have read “The Heroin Diaries”, “This Is Gonna Hurt” and “The Dirt”. I have also read “Tommyland” and “Tattoos & Tequila: To Hell and Back with One of Rock’s Most Notorious Frontmen.”

Since Motley Crue was the top band in the Eighties for me, I devoured as much information as I could on the band. This included taping interviews from all the various music shows, buying the expensive U.S magazines and trading with other hard rock fans in my local area. For example, I would give them a Poison poster and they would give me stuff on Motley Crue that I didn’t have.

So after reading the books above, especially the solo books, I was confused with some of the information that was put out there. Vince Neil’s is the worst one and his book was a very painful one to read. For the casual fan they wouldn’t notice these changes to the mythology of Motley Crue, however for the hard core, some things just didn’t sit right.

Doing the rounds at the moment are comments by Sebastian Bach. To recap, Bach claims that he was asked to join Motley Crue, before they fired Vince Neil. Nikki Sixx said that was not true. Bach took offence to that, you know that whole “don’t call me a liar” argument. In his rebuttal, Bach makes a reference to Nikki Sixx’s “The Heroin Diaries” book as being inaccurate and he also mentions that a jam session took placed between Nikki, Tommy, Mick and Sebastian. Nikki Sixx has yet to respond to this. This isn’t the first time that Nikki Sixx’s version of events has been questioned.

John Corabi, the vocalist that ended up replacing Vince Neil has also disputed certain sections of “The Dirt.” In addition, Phil Lewis from L.A Guns has called “The Heroin Diaries” a fraud. The most famous of all rebuttals is Tom Werman’s which calls Nikki Sixx a “revisionist.” Even Dee Snider, in his opening forewarning of “Shut Up And Give Me The Mic” alludes to a book written by a junkie as not being factually correct.

So how much of the truth did Nikki Sixx tweak and re-envision for the sake of a story line?

The album cover was an important part of each album release. A lot of the times we purchased albums based on how the cover looked. Iron Maiden immediately comes to mind. Most of the times people are unaware who the artists are that create these iconic images. In this case, Storm Thorgerson is a name that people either know or don’t know.

I guarantee if you mention to anyone the name Storm Thorgerson they would look at you like you are speaking a different language.

However if you mentioned Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon, then you get a reaction. You can say that he is best known for creating the prism-spreading color spectrum on the front of Pink Floyd‘s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ album. (All images are sourced from Wikipedia, so that I can showcase my favourite album covers by Storm).

Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse Of Reason was the first Pink Floyd album I purchased in the late eighties. From this album I started to go back and explore the others.

Storm passed away, on Thursday 18th April after a long illness with cancer and the after effects of a stroke in 2003. He was in his 69 years old.

If you have Dream Theater’s – A Change of Season EP, Falling Into Infinity album or Once In A Livetime album, then the cover art was all designed by Storm. Dream Theater is one of my favourite bands at the moment.

Megadeth’s – Rude Awakening DVD cover, was designed by Storm. This cover is a dead set classic.

Europe – Secret Society – again very creative, the secret society is faceless people pulling you in all directions.

Thornley – Come Again – this is one of his best covers, the trap door exit into another world or an alternate reality.

Peter Gabriel – I love the ghostly face in the car with the raindrops. The light and dark shades capture the moment.

Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy – this one was a rare one from Storm, as most of his album covers involved photographs and manipulation of photographs. This one is more or less a drawing.

Muse – Absolution – the shadows of the people falling down from the sky, while the person looks up. Brilliant. Or are the people finding absolution and are being taken up the sky. Again it makes you think.

Led Zeppelin – Presence – I always took this photo as showing a side of the wealthy/powerful and the black presence in the middle of the table. I am sure others have a different take on it. It has been known the Jimmy Page dabbled in black magic, and could this be the presence that the album cover refers too. It makes you think.

The Mars Volta – Frances The Mute – we are all faceless people bypassing each other, just to get ahead.

Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions – i love the contrast of the Red and the Blue. Very war like.

There are a lot of other covers out there, so delve deep and remember the man who is iconic to pop culture. He worked with the best and he is the best. Rest in Peace and thanks for the memories.